Romans 8:5-39

The diagram for Romans 8 has added the symbol of the Holy Spirit and the word of God, and then five themes connected to dollar signs.  The dollar signs indicate these themes are the riches of glory associated with the believer who, in Christ, has every spiritual blessing.  The person, justified by faith in Christ, knows he has been died with Christ and been raised to live in newness of life.  Reckoning this to be true of himself, he has done the only reasonable thing: he has presented his body to Christ for holiness.  He now lives in the kingdom of grace, and thus rejects the law as the basis for his new life, and intends to find his strength in grace.  How does God’s grace become real in him?

First, his mind must be renewed, so that he thinks as God thinks.  He must set his mind on the things of the Spirit (8:5).  To continue to think according to the flesh will leave him incapable of pleasing God (9:6-8).  The Spirit of Christ lives in him and this Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead will give the him new, resurrection life, as well.  The five themes help us to understand how the Holy Spirit works to bring this about.

·       8:12-18: First, the Spirit will assure the believer that he is truly a “son of God.”  This reality leads to a deep and growing relationship with God our Father who will grant us all we need.

·       8:19-25: Then, given the fact that we live in a world that is filled with trials, the Father gives us hope based in the certainty that a time will come when we will be righteous as Christ is righteous.  This is a further explanation of Rom. 5:3-5.

·       8:26-27: The Holy Spirit will help us in our weaknesses, interceding for us even when we do not know what we need from the Father.  This is an amazing part of our riches in Christ.  You don’t know what you will need tomorrow as you face temptation.  But you know you have a heavenly Father who promises to see you through to the end, and that the Spirit will relay to the Father your deepest needs.

·       8:28-30: And you know what the end will be.  The day will come when you have been transformed into the likeness of Christ.  God promises this.

·       8:31-39: And in a mighty crescendo, God says He is for us, will give us all things, and no one or thing will be able to keep Him from fulfilling this promise of eternal love.  This is the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.